They said it couldn’t be done. Four different songwriters joining forces to form a single band? There was simply no precedent (outside of CSNY, The Beatles, The Traveling Wilburys, The Highwaymen, Monsters of Folk, etc). And yet Fantastic Cat did it anyway, defying the odds and teaming up to record their highly unanticipated 2022 debut, The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat. Hailed by Rolling Stone as "a wildly satisfying collection of folk-rock, country, Americana, and good old rock & roll" that offers “equal doses of Dylan and Springsteen,” the album earned the vocal-trading, instrument-swapping collective their national TV debut, sold-out headline dates around the US and Europe, festival performances everywhere from Sundance to Take Root, and a song in the Showtime series Tulsa King. In 2023, the unlikely four-piece teamed up with all-star producer Butch Walker for a 50th anniversary take on Wings’ “Band On The Run,” which prompted even more love from Rolling Stone, who dubbed them “the Harlem Globetrotters of Americana.” Individually, each member of Fantastic Cat boasts their own impressive resume along with a litany of critical acclaim. Paste declared Don DiLego’s latest album a “stunner.” NPR said Anthony D’Amato “sings and writes in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen or Josh Ritter.” Rolling Stone called Brian Dunne’s new record “the sleeper album of the year” and praised Mike Montali’s band, Hollis Brown, as “the soundtrack for a late-night drive through the American heartland.” Collectively, though, the four transcend their respective roots, emerging as velvet-clad rock and roll cooperative far greater than the sum of its parts. They say some cats are born fantastic; others have fantasy thrust upon them. These guys are somewhere in the middle.  

Ok Cowgirl is an American Rock Band reminiscent of a past before streaming, algorithms, and AI slop, when a band was a way of life. The band—made up of singer and songwriter Leah Lavigne, guitarist Jacob Sabinsky, multi-instrumentalist John Miller, bassist Ryan Work, and drummer Matt Birkenholz—conjures the anthemic nostalgia and joyful rebelliousness of Sheryl Crow, Liz Phair, and Bruce Springsteen. At the same time, Rhinestone Cowgirl, their sophomore LP, places Ok Cowgirl in the lineage of modern auteurs like Waxahatchee, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Angel Olsen, and fits nicely into the world of renowned producer Alex Farrar’s other work with MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Indigo De Souza, and Girl Puppy.   Furthermore, Rhinestone Cowgirl is an American Rock Record. Cue wistful desert vistas and empty highways, dim yellow lights hanging above scuffed green pool table felt. This is Drinking Music. It’s a soundtrack to nursing our accumulated wounds. It asks us to ask ourselves how we made it this far. It is survivor’s guilt, a grappling with who we had to leave behind, why we did, and what it might have looked like if we had played our hand differently. “Sometimes I wonder if she would’ve died / If she would’ve left with me,” Lavigne asks on the title track. It’s a question without a simple answer, and this yearning lies at the heart of Rhinestone Cowgirl.   That’s not to say Ok Cowgirl believes there are no ways to cope beyond the aforementioned comfort at the bottom of a bottle. There is a certain dark sense of humor underlying Lavigne’s stoic acceptance of the profound tragedy of the human condition. “So babe laugh a good laugh / Carve your own path / Got no answers to share,” she offers on “God Made A Farmer.” It’s an easier pill to swallow when you can share it with others, “Laughing about the dark stuff / I knew we could be friends,” she sings on “Winner.” It’s not an answer, but it’s the best thing we’ve got—the sense that, in one another, we can find solidarity and camaraderie in the absurdity of our struggle. “Life will break our hearts and take our pride / Hold onto the ones that see you right,” she proclaims on “Rock N Roll Ruined My Life.” For a band that made a name for themselves in the New York indie rock scene, building community show by show in warehouse lofts and dive bars, sharpening their sound on small stages over the last eight years, this precious knowledge has been earned—and they prefer it that way.   These years of honing are apparent in the confidence of the composition, arrangement, and production. The satisfaction of a perfectly placed back beat on “Fun Girl,” the crunch of stacked guitars on the chorus of “Rock N Roll Ruined My Life,” the finger-picked guitar and swirling atmospherics of “Wished I Could Be,” the powerfully sparse spaghetti-western guitars on the title track, and tempos that feel lived-in like an old leather saddle, all speak to this hard-earned experience. This is the work of veteran craftsmen with complete command of their tools. Much like Lavigne’s carefully crafted lyrics, each melody, counter-melody, chord progression & groove is thoughtfully considered but not overwrought. More than that, it is all in service of The Song, and you can feel that genre and style concerns are secondary to telling the story.   Rhinestone Cowgirl tells stories about learning to accept what is out of our control. In this capitalist society, we’re told we can manifest our own reality and create our own good fortunes, but we are no fools. As Lavigne puts it, “When the game is rigged, none of us really win.” It’s a cutting portrait of a cruel world, but acceptance does not beget apathy for Lavigne. “I do have a lot I love / Cliché to thank the stars above / But I’m still gonna do it,” she belts in “Prepared To Lose.” It’s the sound of defiance, of perseverance, of understanding and wielding the power we do have.